There is hope for the younger generation of photographers.

If you were to teach photography at a university and given the cost of college today, combined with the cost of living and books, what camera would you have students purchase? How much would you expect the student to pay for a good camera? A good digital camera new with a viewfinder and interchangeable lenses, add on photoshop, and a printer would cost how much compared to a used film camera? Also, when you move photography to the Art Department from the Communications Department you change the emphasis of the medium.
 
Young people get their start with digital and a certain percentage try film, most just for the hell of it (or their photo teacher tells them too). A certain percent of those like film and stay with it. No idea what that percent is but I hope it's a big enough number, world-wide, to allow for the continuous production of film in various formats for some time to come.

Jim B.
 
Clever!

There must be someone to give advice on young man before jumping in photography and choosing his first camera.

I still can't believe that I paid that much euros for a Canon S5is "advanced" P&S digital camera back in 2008, rather than buying a SLR/RF with a 35/50mm lens for less than 50 euro (+/-) and spend the rest of the money in learning the light (including buying films, developing and scaning + printing eventualy).

I'll give that advice on a young man who would start photography now.
 
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What is now wrong so there is need for hope?

jamesdfloyd said:
This weekend I was hanging out at my local "real" photography store and something very surprising happened. I watched 4 families come into buy Tri-X and batteries for film SLR's. I was amazed.

It seems that the local high school photography instructor does not allow digital or Photoshop for Photo I students. My friend who runs the store said that on Tuesday he got 50-rolls of Tri-X for the start of school and only 15 remained when I left the store Saturday.

Of the 4 students I saw come in, 2 had Pentax K1000's, 1 Minolta and 1 Olympus OM-1n. Most of the kids told me that the cameras belonged to the grandfathers.

There is hope for the younger generation.
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Advertising and marketing has been tauting digital photography as being better than film photography. Some bought the hype, others didn't. Some who did are now thinking they may have been mistaken. That about sums things up, don't you think, Joe? ;)
 
FrankS said:
Advertising and marketing has been tauting digital photography as being better than film photography. Some bought the hype, others didn't. Some who did are now thinking they may have been mistaken. That about sums things up, don't you think, Joe? ;)
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i see, the great marketing conspiracy!
 
back alley said:
i see, the great marketing conspiracy!
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That's not a joke. There's more money to be made selling digital gear which is more like computer gear that needs upgrading, rather than buy one good film camera for life and then pass it on to your kids.

Marketing drives consumerism.
 
When I show my just about anybody my Wife's excellent digital photos, and mine, shot with film, the status quo is that the film stuff is -way more cool-. That's good enough for me.
 
jamesdfloyd said:
I subscribe to that theory...just look at the number of 15-year olds wearing Beatles t-shirts...or better yet, listening to Beatles music.

What's old is new again.
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it was ever thus, many moons ago I was teaching video production in a well known London art school when pro quality colour video became available. After a year the coolest students all wanted to edit in B&W... after installing digital video FX, a year later they wanted to shot 8mm... everyone wants a different look and feel to the mainstream :cool:
 
jamesdfloyd said:
This weekend I was hanging out at my local "real" photography store and something very surprising happened. I watched 4 families come into buy Tri-X and batteries for film SLR's. I was amazed. … There is hope for the younger generation.
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What you witnessed was a number of people buying what their course required them to do - I'm sure that the campus bookstores are also experiencing a resurge of activity, but that doesn't mean that textbooks are going to replace novels any time soon.

I understand and appreciate the sentiment behind this thread, but people have been looking at those unlike themselves as either their redemption or damnation for, well, at least a couple of decades now. :D

If a nineteen-year-old went onto this forum and enthused that there's hope for the older generation of photographers, because many of them are buying computers, would there be the same sense of satisfaction?
 
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware
of what they're going through
 
keepright said:
What you witnessed was a number of people buying what their course required them to do - I'm sure that the campus bookstores are also experiencing a resurge of activity, but that doesn't mean that textbooks are going to replace novels any time soon.

I understand and appreciate the sentiment behind this thread, but people have been looking at those unlike themselves as either their redemption or damnation for, well, at least a couple of decades now. :D

If a nineteen-year-old went onto this forum and enthused that there's hope for the older generation of photographers, because many of them are buying computers, would there be the same sense of satisfaction?[/QUOTE]

Some people I know would be smug about it. :rolleyes:
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A beginning course today should involve at least an APS-C DSLR, a fast normal and Photoshop. And if one must, put some vinegar and hypo behind their ears so they smell like photogs to crusty, old-timers.
 
Since with any luck, the course will give the student a lifetime appreciation for photographing, I think the prerequisite for gear should be any successfully snagged gear off ebay, or a home made Nikon F3 from Rayco's F3 building class, or equivalent...

Get them off to a good start!
 
ampguy said:
At the Palo Alto friends of the library monthly used book sales (one is going on this weekend), a few times a year they have boxes of green film cameras, fixed focus and exposure, for 0.25 cents each. I'm guessing they are used for some kind of educational program, and cost less than holgas. We tried 2 a few years back, one was pretty good, and one had a bad light leak, so we just trashed both to not waste more film in them.

I'm thinking that film photography, like analog electronics and physics labs with lasers and actual lens elements are going by the wayside, since being phased out in the '80s or so.

Now kids have Wikipedia, and no real experience on how stuff actually works. They'll be fully prepared to design the next generation of Ford and GM cars from their ipads ...
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A year or so back I had a "30 something" client (I take photos for a living) ask to have a days shoot resized and sent to her iPhone for editing. I thought this a bit crazy. I spent a fair amount of time doing a pre-edit on a calibrated monitor. I questioned her judgment and got a "you should keep up with the times" kinda response.

In contrast, there are 3 local art schools here, and lots of the students are shooting film. The schools have darkrooms and quality film scanners.
 
jamesdfloyd said:
It seems that the local high school photography instructor does not allow digital or Photoshop for Photo I students.

...

There is hope for the younger generation.
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Sounds more like persistence of the 'older generation' to me. :p I think there's definitely some merit to teaching photography with film nowadays; although, the idea of 'negatives' is losing some of its relevance.

Still great to hear.

/
 
FrankS said:
Now that digital photography has become main-stream, I believe that film photography will become cool. Just my opinion.
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you're a little late - this has been the case for years already.

What's that quote, "each revolution is created with the tools of the past" - something like that.
 
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